Many methods are known for communicating data over a network, including for communicating digital data between remote computers. One exemplary application of such methods is multi-user collaboration in which multiple users share video, audio, and/or other data with one another. For example, virtual meetings may be conducted across a data network in which users see and hear one another in substantially real time and also share other data such as digital documents, presentations, pre-recorded video or audio, and the like. Generally, each of the users communicates a plurality of data streams that include real time video streams, real time audio streams, and real time data streams. These streams are then bundled with all of the other streams received from other meeting attendees and then communicated out to each of the participants so that all can see and hear all of the others.
Although such applications are known, problems with them remain unresolved. For example, it may be desired to conduct virtual meetings between multiple users over a data network, with some of the users having different connectivity resources and/or needs. Depending on the number of participants, the amount of bandwidth required may be quite substantial. All users may not have the required amount of bandwidth available. For users with a limited amount of bandwidth participation in the virtual meeting may be impossible or impractical.
Also, even if sufficient bandwidth is available to participate in the meeting, some users may not desire to devote all of the required bandwidth to the meeting. For example, in a virtual meeting that includes multiple speakers and data presentations, some users may only be interested in one particular video view (e.g., one particular speaker). Consuming all of the bandwidth required to receive the entire virtual meeting feed for these users is impractical and inefficient.
The scale and number of virtual meetings exacerbates these and other problems. As more and more attendees are present, managing the various data streams and communications becomes more and more daunting. Additionally, multiple virtual meetings may be occurring simultaneously, and therefore need to be managed concurrently with one another. This adds further complexity.
Unresolved needs in the art therefore remain.